Jim Hightower: The rise and fall of America's middle class

Ever since 1776, the â€ścommon yeomanâ€ť - Americaâ€™s middle class - has been hailed as the virtuous heart and backbone of our nation.

How ironic, since it took 150 years before we actually created a broad middle class. Before the 1930s, most Americans were poor, or near poor.

And, yes, â€ścreatedâ€ť is the correct term for how our middle class came to be. It was pushed by two historic forces of social transformation.

First, the devastation of the Great Depression created a grassroots rebellion of labor, farmers, and others against the careless moneyed class that caused the 1929 crash. These forces produced FDR and his New Deal of union rights, Social Security, and other tools that empowered ordinary Americans to begin rising up from poverty.

Second, the governmentâ€™s national mobilization for World War II created an explosion of new jobs and opportunities for millions, opening peopleâ€™s eyes, boosting confidence, and raising expectations.

A post-war rise in unionism, the passage of the GI Bill, a housing program, and other progressive actions led to a doubling of the median family income in only 30 years, creating a middle class that included nearly 60 percent of Americans by the late 1970s.

In the 1980s, Reagan Republicans - and many Democrats - switched from supporting egalitarianism to backing the elitism of their corporate donors. Ever since, theyâ€™ve steadily disempowered workers and enthroned the rich, thus imposing todayâ€™s abominable, un-American culture of inequality across our land.

Just as progressives deliberately pushed public policies to create the middle class, so are todayâ€™s economic royalists deliberately pushing plutocratic policies to destroy it. Thatâ€™s the momentous struggle that calls us to action in this political year.

OtherWords columnist Jim Hightower is a radio commentator, writer, and public speaker.